With a new model year upon us again I've seen a lot of posts popping up asking about allocations and other related ordering processes. I wanted to create a thread to try to get all this info in one place.

Anyone please feel free to correct any information I’ve got incorrect in this post. I’m sure there are a number of things that I may have left out, but I just wanted to get some basic info out there for others. I've gathered this info from our forums, a GM training site I found on the web, and my own personal experiences from pre-ordering 2 Camaros and working with the dealers through the whole process. First let’s get some of the terms out there explained:

Allocations – The number of a particular vehicle model a dealer is assigned by GM.

Consensus – The planning and forecasting of vehicles between the dealer and GM. A quantity of vehicles that a dealer requests for a given production period from GM. Based on GM data and constraints they may or may not receive the amount requested.

Constraints – Items that are unavailable for ordering due to plant or supplier issues. This could be a certain option or an entire model of vehicle.

Final Allocation by Week Report – This report shows a dealer’s final allocation quantities for the specified production period.

Pass 1 – The preliminary pass of the vehicle order process which looks at only the quantity of preliminary orders that equals the lower of a dealer’s allocation quantity and desired quantity.

PDI – Pre-Delivery Inspection

Preferenced – Order has been sent to one of the GM production management systems

Preliminary order – A vehicle order that has been submitted to GM through the OrderWORKBENCH system. It would have successfully gone through Pass One. These orders have an Event Code of 1100 (Preliminary Order Accepted)

Priority number – Indicates the dealer’s preference for the placement of a preliminary order. The lower the number the higher the priority. A sold order defaults to a priority of 1, stock orders default to a priority of 99. Priority 0 means that the dealer does not want GM to place the order. The dealer can change these numbers as needed.

Sold order – A preliminary order that is placed for a customer

TPP – Target Production Period – The date range used in order to define the effective period for a marketing or allocation constraint. Also the period when a specified number of vehicles is scheduled to be produced, typically a 1-2 week period.

TPW – Target Production Week – The week in which the specified vehicle is expected to be built.

How it all works:

Consensus:
Dealer puts in for requested quantities of different model groups
Dealer allocation quantity changes from “production consensus” to “final allocation” after GM resolves any variances between the approved production volumes and production consensus quantities
(needs some verification on the days referenced below)
Final Allocation by Week Report is released mid month on Wednesday
Report shows allocations by week for 2 week timeframe
Allocations are assigned on Thursday each week
Dealers have until the following Tuesday to resolve constraint issues before orders are pulled

Ordering:
Order is configured in GM OrderWORKBENCH
Customer information is assigned to order
Order is checked for constraints
Order number is generated
By default the sold order is given priority number of 1
After consensus and dealer receives allocation they can apply it to an order
If there are no constraints it will be preferenced
If no action is taken the system will pull the lowest priority number order (1-99)
If multiple orders are at the same priority number it will pull the oldest order first (need verification)
As long as there are no constraints it will be preferenced
If there are constraints the dealer would have to either re-configure the order or allow a non-constrained order through
Order is eventually run through Pass 2, 3 and possibly a 4th optional one that can be used and GM may also use

The GM OrderWORKBENCH website opened up for 2013 Camaro configurations on 4/19. I was able to get to the dealer on 4/20 and was ready with my deposit and a copy of my credit score (this might have been overkill, but IMO you can never be too prepared). I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with the salesman and the fleet manager while we went into the system to configure the car. Once we selected the year, model, transmission, color, trim, and all the other options we had to setup my customer information for the sold order. After that they ran the order against Pass One and it showed it failed so we could not continue. It didn’t specify any codes with errors, there was just a generic message about it being unable to process the order. I searched our forums and found Ciscokid’s post regarding the Blue Ray Metallic color keeping the order from passing Pass One (http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217874) We changed the color of the order to Silver Ice Metallic and ran Pass One against it again. This time it passed and I was given a preliminary order number! The guys wrote up the paperwork showing the car would be sold at MSRP and I wrote them a $1,000 check for the deposit. Once my dealer receives allocation they can apply my order to one of the allocations and it will eventually get pulled. Once the car is shipped to the dealer they will perform their PDI and I will finally be able to drive away in my dream Camaro!

I know firsthand how frustrating it can be going through this whole process so I hope that this guide was helpful and can help someone have a better experience with their ordering.

This was wonderful - very much appreciated. I'm pretty new at the ordering scheme and happened to try to order during this build year overlap. So all of this is extremley useful.

Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad it was helpful for you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Indy Bumble Bee

Great write up

Thanks for the kind words

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casperadub70

so when you added all the options that you wanted it came to a MSRP. Where you able to haggle with that price? Or is it since you went there and ordered it thats is what price you will pay?

I don't qualify for GM employee discount and it's going to be quite a while til the ZL1's are just sitting on the lots collecting dust to get good mark downs. Unless you know the dealer well I think it'll be pretty rare to get a big discount on the car for the average joe. Since pricing isn't even released yet and it's a much sought after model, I was just happy to get MSRP in writing About 1/2 the dealers in the area that I talked to want $5K over sticker even for 2013's which should have much larger quantity of allocations compared to 2012. I'm not sure how willing dealers are to give discounts on other models that are pre-ordered/special ordered, but I'm guessing it all depends on your relationship with them.

I figured there was a good chance it might be since it's new. Guess I need to track down a car with this color to see it in person before my dealer gets allocations so I can see if it's worth a 2+ month wait. I've seen pics of a few Corvettes being around in the Night Race Blue, and FBOD said the Dusk Concept car is a very close match too. Any other ideas?

I figured there was a good chance it might be since it's new. Guess I need to track down a car with this color to see it in person before my dealer gets allocations so I can see if it's worth a 2+ month wait. I've seen pics of a few Corvettes being around in the Night Race Blue, and FBOD said the Dusk Concept car is a very close match too. Any other ideas?

GM might not offer Blue Ray Metallic (GXH) on the 2013 ZL1. Limited production high performance cars like this are usually also limited to color choice. It's what GM does. Who knows why. I may be wrong, but it wouldn't surprise me. Same goes for the 2013 1LE model. Probably only going to be offered in Red, White, Black or maybe Gray. Yellow? nah, that's for the Transformers editions...okay, sorry, I am being sarcastic. Its still early as far as the 2013 MY is concerned! Hey! Maybe GM will reverse their cranial-rectal inversion and offer the masses a real neat blue metallic...something like the old LeMans Blue or Mulsanne Blue?! Yeah, RIGHT.